Holidaymakers have been forced to extend their break in Hawaii by three days
and given £500 to spend due to an aeroplane fault

You might not receive much sympathy from your boss. “Hello, I’m afraid my flight has been delayed, so I’ll have to extend my holiday by three days. It’s ok, I’ve been given £500 to cover my costs. And yes, I am in Hawaii."

Such was the predicament of more than 220 holidaymakers who were due to fly back from their holiday on the tropical island on Sunday but were told that - due to a fault on their Air New Zealand plane - they would be unable to leave.

Pilots on the Boeing 767-30 aborted the take-off of flight NZ09 to Auckland after the indication system was found to be faulty. Around half of those due to fly were sent home in a Hawaiian Airlines flight later that day. But the remaining passengers were given £500 in compensation when later rescheduled departures were also thwarted.

These holidaymakers instead had to spend three nights in hotels on the island, which is known for its lush volcanic topography and surf beaches.

Air New Zealand said it was “incredibly sorry” to have let customers down.

Carrie Hurihanganui, a general manager, said: “Due to the lengthy nature of this disruption, the difficulty we’ve experienced in adequately communicating with customers and the fact we have repeatedly let them down, we have made the decision that in addition to our unreserved apology we will also be compensating each customer $1,000 in either cash or Airpoints Dollars.

“Due to an unfortunate combination of events this group of passengers has travelled to Honolulu Airport on three occasions expecting to fly, however, on each occasion the aircraft has been unable to depart because of a series of evolving engineering issues.

“A part was required and we attempted to source a replacement within the US, however, despite assurances, the right part was not supplied. Fortunately, as a backup, we also loaded the part onto NZ10 from our Auckland Technical Operations base this morning and this will arrive in Honolulu this evening.”

The flight was finally expected to leave at 7.30am, local time, on Tuesday.

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